Coming up with the plan

[Zilver]

Looking for your experiences!

Did you ever write the classic scene in which the heros sit down together to come up with "the Plan"? The ingeneous or desparate plotting they have to do before they embark on their heist, rescue or invasion?

How did you approach it? Did you use the plotting scene to set up expectations you then subverted? Did you write out significant parts of that plotting scene, or did you skip over the plotting scene entirely and just start with the action? Or did anyone even do it Ocean's 11-style, where the actions is interspersed with flashbacks to the plotting...?

I'm curious to see how other people have worked with that story-situation...

 

[Karlin]

The book I recently finished (not published yet) has a planning session in someone's kitchen, where the "heroes" go over posisble options, and decide on a course of action. They do in fact follow up on that, as best as they can. Circumstances are more complicated than they may have thought, but teh plot more or less follows their plan. I didn't see any need to mislead the reader (if that is what you are asking). Personally, I tend to write more or less chronologically, so I don't write the action first and then write the planning. Unless there's a plot hole (I'm a 'pantser' so there are holes).

 

[Mad Swede]

No. That's partly because in the sorts of stories I write there isn't much deliberate plotting of that sort, certainly not in the short stories, and because in my experience those sorts of scenes just slow the action down.

 

[pmmg]

Generally, if the plan is shown to the audience, it will not go as planned, but if the plan is hidden, it will.

Personally, i dont like ‘trust me, i have a plan’. For me, that is not good enough, i want to know the plan before i trust.

 

[JBCrowson]

I agree with the dragon, that if the plan is discussed ahead of implementation, it needs to not work in some way, otherwise you've removed all the tension from the plot. If the plan isn't discussed, it may still fail though, since it is unlikely the planners will be able to foresee all possibilities.

 

[Penpilot]

I don't think what I do is anything special, but for my climaxes, it generally unfolds like this.

Come up with plan, execute plan, plan fails. come up with new plan on the fly, and execute new plan.

What you do specifically depends on the type of story you're telling and the details of your story, but generally, you want the reader to know what the plan is and what the consequences of failure are, so they know how much trouble the main characters are in when the plan doesn't work. Because you generally want tension not confusion.

Now, there are stories where keeping the reader in the dark can work, but I don't tend to write those type of stories.

 

[Karlin]

I've been thinking about this . I'm coming from a different angle, the characters. Do the characters need a planning session? I wouldn't try to manipulate the reader. If the characters need the planning, then the reader needs it too.
Not sure if your characters need a planning session? Ask them. Or, maybe they aren't real enough

 

[skip.knox]

I've been thinking about this . I'm coming from a different angle, the characters. Do the characters need a planning session? I wouldn't try to manipulate the reader. If the characters need the planning, then the reader needs it too.
Not sure if your characters need a planning session? Ask them. Or, maybe they aren't real enough

Exactly this. Most of those planning scenes are to be found in movies. They're there for a particular purpose: to mislead the audience.

I'm sure such scenes happen in fantasy fiction, but danged if I can think of an example. A similar device is with mysteries, where the group is assembled in order to review the Facts So Far and to speculate on the crime and culprit. It takes a deft hand to construct these scenes to avoid being stilted or dull. Or both.

Such scenes also require work. I've had to do this in my WIP, so I'm more aware of the issues than I usually am. The contrived nature of the scene was all too evident. I had to back up and consider each character individually. Why were they there at that particular time? What was their own view of the situation? Did they come with an agenda? Do they come in angry or frightened or coolly confident? In every case, why are they in that mind? What has happened earlier to bring them to the moment? Does the plot need them to be different? Or does the story so far mean they cannot be this or that? Sometimes it meant they could not possibly be just there, just then, even thought they needed to be. That meant some rewriting.

Oh, and in at least one case, the whole scene could slide around. Could be in this room, or that one. Could be now, or a little earlier or even later. Every possibility brought with it the need to check on all the characters again. I was very happy when I finally nailed the wretched thing to a specific time and place.

By the time I had worked through all that, I had a pretty good idea of the dynamics of the scene. Actually looked forward to a couple of interactions. But boy howdy it took a lot of work.

 

[JBCrowson]

Exactly this. Most of those planning scenes are to be found in movies. They're there for a particular purpose: to mislead the audience.

I'm sure such scenes happen in fantasy fiction, but danged if I can think of an example. A similar device is with mysteries, where the group is assembled in order to review the Facts So Far and to speculate on the crime and culprit. It takes a deft hand to construct these scenes to avoid being stilted or dull. Or both.

Such scenes also require work. I've had to do this in my WIP, so I'm more aware of the issues than I usually am. The contrived nature of the scene was all too evident. I had to back up and consider each character individually. Why were they there at that particular time? What was their own view of the situation? Did they come with an agenda? Do they come in angry or frightened or coolly confident? In every case, why are they in that mind? What has happened earlier to bring them to the moment? Does the plot need them to be different? Or does the story so far mean they cannot be this or that? Sometimes it meant they could not possibly be just there, just then, even thought they needed to be. That meant some rewriting.

Oh, and in at least one case, the whole scene could slide around. Could be in this room, or that one. Could be now, or a little earlier or even later. Every possibility brought with it the need to check on all the characters again. I was very happy when I finally nailed the wretched thing to a specific time and place.

By the time I had worked through all that, I had a pretty good idea of the dynamics of the scene. Actually looked forward to a couple of interactions. But boy howdy it took a lot of work.

The Council of Elrond is a planning meeting of sorts. Do we use the ring, hide the ring or destroy the ring? Ok we're destroying it, so who and how? And of course it all goes pear shaped...
With reference to your comment on getting the players together for such a meeting, Tolkien had Elrond invite the others, yet I think the time for a message to get to say Gondor, and Boromir to get back to Rivendell, would be longer than Elrond had knowledge of the ring's re-appearance. All of which is to say, perhaps we don't need to sweat the finer details as much as we think we do.

 

[Incanus]

I'm sure such scenes happen in fantasy fiction, but danged if I can think of an example.

Unless 'plan' is here defined differently than I would image, aren't fantasy stories involving a quest essentially using 'plans'?

The Hobbit--the opening chapter shows fifteen characters discussing a plan (to recapture the mountain stronghold from the dragon who had taken it over).

LoTR--First, to get the ring out of The Shire. In Rivendell, the longest chapter in the book depicts the characters going over the facts, discussing many alternative plans (e.g. - guard the ring, use the ring against Sauron, give it to Bombadil, throw it in the sea), before deciding on destroying it in the only place it can be. They change plans often as they go (instead of going south they cross the Misty Mountains, they have a meeting at the 'Breaking of the Fellowship' chapter to discuss plans, Gandalf has plans to gather the disparate groups in Rohan to fight in Helm's Deep, Rohan plans to aid Gondor in the war, after the battle of Minas Tirith the plan is to draw the forces of Mordor away from Mount Doom).

Some plans are more implicit than others, but they are still plans, and they rarely go as intended.